Your Turn
by ReNeOed
Summary: Harry leaves, sick of the pain watching Hermione with Ron caused him, to move on to a new life. Hermione discovers some unknown feelings when he comes back with an announcement. One-shot!


He smiled at her from across the crowded room. She smiled back and then went back to her conversation with her new boyfriend. She was about to raise another argument about his refusal to finish school when she heard a baby's shriek and looked in that direction to form a wide grin on her face, one that mirrored nearly every other person in the room, as the shriek turned into beautiful and infectious laughter as Harry caught the airborne Teddy Lupin in his hands and rubbed his nose with his own.

She waved at Andromeda Tonks, who had apparently just arrived with her grandson who now had his face hidden in his godfather's neck.

She sighed when she realized Ron was still speaking. She cut him off with a quick "Let's talk about this later, Ron" and moved towards the three. As she neared them, she heard Harry whispering to Teddy, "Don't you dare forget me, little guy..." before he heard her coming towards him.

He looked up and grinned at her. She grinned back as Teddy raised his arms towards her and Harry handed the baby to her waiting arms. She looked into Teddy's beautiful big eyes which were green at the moment and cooed softly, "Hey you beautiful baby! You missed me?"

She looked up at Harry smiling and saw him looking at her with undisguised adoration. Teddy started to lean towards his grandmother so she handed him to Andromeda who wished her a good morning before saying "I believe Harry has something to tell you, so I'll leave you two alone" and left.

"I'd... uh... come on," he said with a glare in Andromeda's direction before taking her hand and pulling her towards an isolated corner of the room. He cast muffliato around them before looking shyly at her. He began, "Hermione, a few weeks ago, I got a job offer and I've... been thinking about it and I've decided to take it."

"Oh! That's good. What is it?"

"Um... A chef!"

Hermione was gobsmacked... Her jaw fell open in surprise. She had to stop herself from laughing out loud at the idea of him wearing a large chef's hat. "You can cook?"

"Yeah, I can... Not that good yet. I'm going to be just learning for a few months when I go there. But the thing is... The job's not here."

"What?"

"It's in New York!"

"What?" Hermione shrieked, but thanks to the spell around them, no one heard.

"What are you talking about? Why can't you just take a job here? You've got so many offers. Just be a chef here if you want. Merlin, choose anywhere in Europe. Why do you have to go somewhere you can't even portkey from?"

Harry looked at her sadly and then explained, "I don't want to live like this, Hermione. I'm not happy here anymore. The only thing that was keeping me was Teddy, but now we've decided that after I'm settled there, maybe after a month or two, Andi and Ted will come live with me, atleast for some time."

"So, you're not even going to discuss this. You've just decided to leave us. And why exactly are you talking to me about this now, why not before?"

"I'm really sorry Hermione, but this was something that... I just wanted to decide for myself. And right now, I'm just here to say goodbye."

"What?" Hermione asked in a weak voice.

"I'm leaving, on a plane, tomorrow morning."

Hermione had tears in her eyes as she looked down at the floor. She wanted to shout at him, hit him, and hug him, all at the same time. He slowly put his arms around her and hugged her to him hard. She wept on his shoulder as he whispered to her, "I'm so sorry. I'm doing this all wrong, aren't I?"

Hermione replied in a teary voice, "I'm gonna miss you so much."

"I'm gonna miss you too, Hermione. I'm sorry. I just really need to do this, to be happy." Harry said to her hair.

"I know," She said pulling away from him, "and then... I'm happy if you're happy."

She hugged him again tightly, and didn't let go until Harry said, "I think Ron's really getting jealous right now."

She pulled back and chuckled lightly before turning and waving at Ron who turned away. She sighed and asked Harry, "When are you going to tell him?"

"Today, before I leave. Preferably when the place is a little emptier. Don't want to create a scene in the midst of everybody."

Hermione just hugged him again tightly, trying to remember every little bit of the man in front of her.

* * *

It had been nearly half a year since the last time she'd seen his face. He had come for a few days for the second anniversary of the battle. Andi and Ted had relocated permanently after that to live with him. Now they were all coming back for Christmas with some of Harry's friends.

Of course, she was a part of the welcoming committee. She had slowly grown used to not seeing Harry's face nearly every day. But still, she missed him... a lot. There was hardly a day that passed without her wishing that he was back with them. But atleast he was happy now. That was the only thing that kept her from dragging him, or begging him to come back to England. He told her that he missed them, but he was much happier where he was now than he had been ever before in his life, happy with his job, happy with not dealing with magic anymore, happy with his new friends. She wondered if they could still be called best friends anymore, if he had some new best friends and she and Ron had just been reduced to his old friends from England.

Oh, the passengers were arriving. She stood up from her seat, dragging Ron up with her. After a couple of minutes, she noticed a group of 7 people, one of whom had a baby in her arms. She waved at them, finally getting Andromeda's attention who smiled and got Harry's attention and pointed at them.

He looked amazing. The smile on his face seemed to be lighting the whole place up. She couldn't help but run at him and hug him as tightly as she could, laughing as he spun her around, not caring about the rest of the people around them. He set her down and moved to give Ron a hug as well. Meanwhile Andromeda had reached her and grabbed her in a gentle hug. Teddy was laughing in the arms of one of the girls from the group. So she grabbed the hat wearing baby in her hands and asked him, "You remember me, you little devil?"

Harry came from behind and put an arm around her shoulders, tickling Teddy lightly as he said in baby talk, "Of course he does." He smiled at her before he looked up at the girl who had been holding Teddy for a second, and then kissed her on the cheek and whispered "I missed you" in her ear. He then looked up at his other friends and before she had a chance to reply said in a loud voice, "Guys, these... are my best friends in the world, Ron Weasley, and Hermione soon-to-be-Weasley Granger." As his friends all said variations of hello and congratulations to the two of them, he looked at her and whispered, "Congratulations for that! I'm really happy for you."

Then he moved towards the other group and put an arm around the girl who Teddy had gone back to by now. "Well, this guy here is Rick Mason, this is Ted Bosner, and these are Mr. and Mrs. Jameson." He introduced his friends and they all shook hands with Hermione and Ron, the last two introducing themselves as John and Tina.

Hermione noticed the other girl, who still hadn't been introduced, looking into Harry's eyes expectantly. Harry grinned at her and turned back to Ron and Hermione. He said dramatically, "And now, we have a surprise for you. This beautiful lady here..." He looked down at the girl and kissed her softly, "is Nora Wight, my fiancee."

"Bloody hell" came an exclamation from Ron whooped and clapped Harry on the back hard before hugging him. Nora gave him a little hug as well and looked at Hermione who was just standing there with her mouth wide open staring at Harry wide eyed.

She forced herself to smile a little and hug Harry as hard as she could. She forced herself to congratulate Nora while she got a small hug from her as well. She walked along with them to the cars that were waiting outside.

She sat in the car the whole time, her body moving automatically, doing everything without a thought somehow. Her mind had stopped working. "Hey, are you okay?"

'Huh... Oh, Harry's speaking.'

"Sorry, what?"

"What's wrong, Hermione?"

"Oh, nothing."

He nodded and went back to focusing on the road, the look on his face showing clearly that he didn't believe her for even a second.

* * *

"I love you," he whispered in her ear as he got out from her hug. "Good night, see you guys tomorrow. Remind the others about magic, alright? Only Nora and Ted know."

She nodded and said, "Good night Harry. Love you too."

Ron took her hand and apparated them both back to their apartment.

"Can you believe it? He's getting married in three months and we're finding out now that he's even got a girlfriend. Merlin's balls!" Ron announced as soon as he sat down.

"Three months?"

"Yeah, didn't he tell you? And the prick has been with her pretty much since he got there, and never even mentioned her once, until now. Can you believe it?"

"No... So, how's Nora?"

"She seemed nice. You'd love her, though. That Rick guy said that she was a genius. Works as a searcher or something. We didn't really talk much... She just concentrated on the road, said it had been a long time since she had driven on British roads."

"Harry said the same thing as well... Ron, you don't think Harry just got engaged because we did, do you? So he won't feel left out, or something?"

"Blimey, Harry talked even less than Nora did, huh? He proposed to her right after he got back from his last trip here. It was months before I even thought of asking you."

"Oh!"

After a few seconds of silence, Ron asked, "So, Harry looked great, eh?"

"Of course, he's finally got a family now. A mum, a wife and a son..."

"Oh, good for Teddy as well, right? He even calls Nora mumma, can you believe that?"

"Yeah, he seemed quite attached to her." She replied suddenly feeling a little betrayed by the tiny metamorphmagus. She suddenly realized that she had once hoped that he would call her his mother one day. _'But Harry's practically his dad. Of course his wife will be Ted's mother.'_

"Ron, I'm a little tired. So, I'm just gonna take a nap, alright?"

"Okay, well I'm going to the Burrow. I hope Andromeda hasn't told them all the news yet. I wanna see all their faces."

"Well, bye." She got up and moved to lay down on their bed.

'Of course he was gonna get married someday. Why is this such a big shock?'

'Because after all I've done for him all these years, shouldn't I be the girl he loves the most?'

'Oh wow, well obviously he was going to find someone who he fell in love with, and they would mean more to him than just his best friend. Get over yourself, girl.'

Long held tears fell from her eyes suddenly as she remembered the way Harry had kissed his fiancee softly, as if nothing in the world except her.

_'Can't you just be happy for him, why are you being so selfish?'_ Her mind admonished itself.

_'Maybe I'm not selfish, just jealous of that happiness.'_ Another part of her mind replied.

_'Well, suck it up, there's a girl he loves more than you. And that's how it's supposed to be. You have Ron, don't you?'_

_'Yeah, but shut up... I'm going to sleep.'_

* * *

"So, how did you two get together?" Ginny asked Nora.

"Yeah, I was just gonna ask the same thing." Angelina said, looking at Nora expectantly.

They were all sitting around the dinner table in a fancy restaurant in London, waiting for their dinner to arrive. Hermione also waited for the answer, though her mind was refusing to allow her to like the girl who was now looking at Harry with a loving look in her eyes as he laughed at something Fred had said.

Hermione grinned at the sight as well, her mind still thought of any moment with Harry laughing as precious.

"Well, we met about a week after he arrived there. My dad loved Ted's restaurant and often took me there as well. My father wanted me to meet this amazing young British man Ted had brought to New York. The moment I met him, I was completely fascinated. There was this amazing mystery around him, and his eyes, oh god, I fell in love with those eyes the second I saw them. Well, I used every excuse I could think of to hang around him. But I didn't make a move on him, because he sometimes acted just so shy, sometimes the way he acted I thought there was an ex-girlfriend here he still wasn't over, or something, though to me, it just made him even more attractive. But, well, we became great friends really soon."

Hermione looked in Harry's direction who was now listening to Nora as well. He looked at her and smiled widely at her and then turned back to Nora who continued, "Well, a month later, I got some really horrible exam results - what?" she asked Harry who had suddenly laughed out hard.

"Nothing... Sorry! Only you would call 87% 'really horrible'... Well, you and Hermione." He added, smirking at the two of them.

"Oh shut up!" They both said together, leading to laughter all around the table.

"Well... since she had got those 'horrifying' results, she was moping around like it was the end of the world... So, I thought I'd try to cheer her up." Harry continued the story.

"Yes, this genius just barged into my apartment, switched on the radio, grabbed me and literally carried me to the center of my living room..." She stopped and grinned at Harry who grinned back, before continuing, "Well, he forced my body to move in the worst dance I have ever seen..." She chuckled to herself, "but he just somehow seemed so happy, happier than I'd ever seen him... And it was so infectious. I was laughing along with him, moving in and out of his arms, literally jumping around, spinning around, knocking over things, and I wasn't even drunk... I think." Everybody let out another small laugh at that...

"Well, the stupid dance soon changed into just slowly swaying around, both of us laying our heads on each other's shoulders, it was the most romantic moment I'd been in in my whole life till then. He backed away a little from me and gave me this shy little smile. It was so beautiful... Aw look, there it is." She said pointing at Harry who suddenly grinned.

"Well, of course I gave him the biggest smile I could back, how could I not? I had the greatest friend in the world... And then, he slowly moved forward and kissed me softly." She finished with a sigh leading to "Awwws" all around the table. Harry moved around the table to give her another kiss and whispered "I love you" to her, leading to another repetition of the same sounds.

Hermione's brain had shut down once again. She quickly excused herself to go to the bathroom to stop from showing others the tears that were threatening to pour down her eyes.

_He stood next to her and offered her his hand. She looked at him emotionlessly, placed her hand in his and stood up with a sigh. He unclasped the necklace around her neck and placed it on a table. He grabbed her hands in his and dragged her to the middle of the tent._

_He started moving their hands back and forth bending his knees in an awkward manner as she looked at him, trying her best not to let herself be happy. But he kept going on till the corners of her mouth lifted up in a tiny smile and she started to move a little with him. He spun her around and she finally gave him a smile. He spun around himself and she couldn't stop the laugh that escaped her lips. They kept dancing stupidly and laughing more and more as the song went on. As the song neared its end, they laid their heads on the other's shoulder and leaned into each other swaying lightly._

_Harry smiled at her when the song ended and they separated, but she couldn't bring herself to smile back. She didn't want Harry to make her happy like that. She walked away, thinking that she wanted Ron... And Harry wasn't Ron._

She broke down at the memory, finally understanding how much a single smile could have changed her life.

She got her tears under control, and went out to wash her face. She got to the dinner table, and forcing her voice to not break, asked Harry in a quiet voice, "Harry, can I talk to you for a minute, please?"

He followed her to the balcony. She looked at him and asked in a teary voice, "Would you... would you have kissed me if I hadn't walked away that night?"

Harry grabbed her hands in his, "Probably Hermione, but think about it, you were in love with Ron, right? So, it's a really good thing you walked away, or we might have made a huge mistake. And I wouldn't have met Nora. Now we're all happy. So please don't think you hurt me."

"But I clearly did hurt you so much... I was so selfish. You were so distressed yourself. But I didn't do a thing to make you feel even slightly better. I'm so sorry."

He looked at her with a sad smile on his face, and said, "You didn't really hurt me. I knew you loved Ron... I was happy I made you happy, even for a minute."

"Oh god, I'm so sorry Harry. I never thought about what I was doing to you!" She said bringing him into a hug as she tried to hold back tears.

"Hey, it's okay... I didn't want you to know that I was in love with you... It would've just complicated things."

"You were in love with me?"

"At that time, yes I think I was."

"Oh... Does Nora know?"

"About my feelings for you? Yes, I told her right after I got back from here, last time... Because I was finally sure that I didn't have that kind of feelings for you anymore. When I saw you being happy with Ron... I didn't feel sad at all... I just felt happy that you were happy. Though I still loved you more than everybody in the world except Nora and Teddy, I definitely wasn't in love with you anymore. I had finally moved on."

Hermione felt like her heart had been ripped out on hearing those words. Tears threatened to fall down her eyes but she forced herself to keep them back, "So you're sure you're not in love with me anymore?"

Harry smiled a little, "Heh... Yes, I'm confident. You don't have to worry." He looked inside for a second, "Hey! We should go back in. The food's there. Come on."

"You go," Hermione said, pulling away from him, "I'll be inside in a minute. I just need a minute to think."

"Alright, I'll see you inside," Harry said. She watched him go back inside, the tears finally getting a chance to fall freely.

'Why are you crying? Isn't it a good thing that he's finally moved on and is happy?'

'No, you clearly don't think so... But why not?'

Hermione cast a charm on her face to get rid of the tear stains on her cheeks and walked back inside to sit back at the table... As she sat down opposite Nora, she saw that Harry was whispering something in Nora's ears, then Nora whispered back a reply... And then Harry kissed her softly and put his forehead on hers, and whispered to her, "I love you!"

Hermione's heart was suddenly filled with pain. She looked down at her feet to stop the others from seeing her face... When she raised her head, Harry was looking at her with this beautiful, shy little smile on his face. She, despite herself, found herself giving him a huge grin back. When she thought about it, she realized... How could she not? He was the greatest guy in the world... He loved her, even though she hurt him so much. He would still do nearly anything so she wouldn't be hurt. He would die for her... He would kill for her!

Then she understood... He had killed for her... He had even died for her! She couldn't believe that even after all that, he hadn't asked for even a single thing back from her...

But now... He was finally happy. He was engaged to a beautiful girl whom he loved and who loved him. So still, she had done nothing to make him happier.

* * *

As she watched Harry move through the group, saying goodbyes to them all one by one, only one thought was going through her mind...

_'What do I do now? What do I do now?'_

Harry gave her a really tight and really long hug when he reached her. When he pulled back, he didn't even have to say anything for her to see it in his eyes.

Hermione whispered, "I love you too." As she looked at his face, she thought she hadn't ever wanted to do anything more than she wanted to kiss those lips at that moment.

Harry smiled and whispered back, "I know... And please don't kiss me... Or Ron would kill me." He grinned at her and she looked back with a desperate expression on her face.

"Hermione, I'm Nora's now." He said to her, and then he whispered something in her ears, and kissed her forehead.

She watched his back with tears falling down her face as he walked away, her mind stuck at the words he had just said...

"I've moved on... It's your turn now!"


End file.
